Biodiversity bill needs changes

March 26, 2019

By: The Working Forest Staff

CBC News — Environmentalists, woodlot owners, and forestry company representatives were united in calling for changes to the measures being proposed by the McNeil government to protect Nova Scotia’s biodiversity, but Bill 116 is headed back to the floor of the legislature without amendment.

That’s because Liberal members on the law amendments committee used their majority to defeat a motion by Progressive Conservative MLA Tory Rushton to send the Biodiversity Act back to the Department of Lands and Forestry to mull over what it was told Monday afternoon.

According to the report by CBC News, eight individuals spoke out in favour of the bill in principle, but all had suggestions to make provisions either stronger or clearer.

Debbie Reeves, who called herself a sixth-generation woodlot owner in Lunenburg and Kings counties, told the committee she was worried the proposed law gave Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin too much power.

“This act is over-reaching and everything is biodiversity,” Reeves said.

“This could result in unintended consequences, such as even stopping us from cutting dying fir trees as it could provide habitat for some types of bugs or stop Christmas tree growers from planting genetic modified seedlings.”

That sentiment was echoed by Andrew Fedora, who spoke on behalf of Forest Nova Scotia, the main forestry industry lobby group in the province.

He pointed to section 31 of the act which spells out the proposed law’s offenses and penalties, including the “harvesting, taking or killing of a species in excess of that prescribed by the regulations.”

“It appears that this applies to activities on all lands, Crown and private,” Fedora told the committee.

“This threatens the livelihood and the rights of private land owners who should have a choice in what happens on their lands.”

Those who wanted greater protective measures were united in asking for changes to the law that would push Rankin to do more.

Group after group called for a number of words in the act to be changed from “may” to “shall,” including “the Minister shall establish or adopt goals or targets for biodiversity and indicators.”

“Setting goals and targets is not only at the core of the [United Nations] Convention on Biological Diversity, which Canada was the first to sign in 1992 … but it’s the primary means of moving toward improving our understanding about biodiversity and ultimately creating sustainable, workable solutions,” Lisa Mitchell, executive director of the East Coast Environmental Law Association, told the committee.

Sarah Kingsbury, a graduate student at Saint Mary’s University, urged the committee to amend the law to better protect the province against invasive species — a measure that only rated a one-word mention in the law as it is currently written.

“Without the proper funding, moderating programs, public education programs, and governmental regulation oversight, Nova Scotia will continue to be a hotspot for invasives,” said Kingsbury. “Currently our situation is poor.”